The White House releases the following statement after a staffer for Vice-President Mike Pence tests positive for the Wuhan Virus:
“This evening we were notified that a member of the Office of the Vice President tested positive for the Coronavirus. Neither President Trump nor Vice President Pence had close contact with the individual. Further contact tracing is being conducted in accordance with CDC guidelines.”
Stay Calm and Keep America Great…
First, regardless of what the poll numbers reflect, based on a three-year track record of doing whatever it takes, it is safe to say President Trump would do whatever was the best approach while considering polling of those hard decisions irrelevant.
Second, even with the constant back-biting, snark and transparent attacks from the mainstream media, President Trump’s strength as a leader and manager of crisis is well identified by the majority of Americans. The media hate us, he’s just in their way.
(Via ABC) As a deepening public health crisis rocks the nation, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll released Friday shows a far different portrait of a country than from only one week ago, as nearly three in four Americans now say their lives have been upended in some way by the novel coronavirus and President Donald Trump’s approval for his handling of the outbreak is on the rise.
In the new poll, 55% of Americans approve of the president’s management of the crisis, compared to 43% who disapprove. Trump’s approval on this issue is up from last week, when the numbers were nearly reversed. (read more)
The White House coronavirus task force briefing is being held today at 11:45am ET.
UPDATE: Video Added
Former White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett is returning to the administration as a senior economic advisor to President Trump during the COVID-19 response.
Kevin Hassett is very sharp and a happy warrior by disposition. Hassett was excellent as CEA Chair and no doubt his rejoining the economic team with an advisory position to President Trump will bring a great voice back to the crew.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called-in to Maria Bartiromo earlier today to discuss the overall financial approach of the Trump administration to the COVID-19 impacts.
Mnuchin has been working closely with House and Senate political leadership to structure the financial flow needed for particular sectors and workers inside the Main St economy. The target date for legislation directing the financial relief is early next week.
The underlying economy is strong. The treasury response is targeted to those who need short-term relief. Short-term economic indicators are no longer valid.
After signing an executive order directing HHS as part of the invocation of the Defense Production Act, President Trump meets with representatives of American nurses.
Participants included: Robyn Begley,CEO, American Organization of Nurse Leaders; David Benton,CEO, National Council of State Boards of Nursing; Theresa Davis,Clinical Operations Director, American Association of Critical Care Nurses; Debbie Hatmaker, Chief Nursing Officer, American Nurses Association; David Hebert, CEO, American Association of Nurse Practitioners; Ron Krause,Vice President and President-Elect, Emergency Nurses Association; Cara Krulewitch,Epidemiologist, American College of Nurse-Midwives; Dave Mason, Senior Policy Director, National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health; Suzanne Miyamoto,President and CEO, American Academy of Nursing; Randall Moore II,CEO, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists
Brenda Nevidjon,CEO, Oncology Nursing Society; Dr. Deborah Trautman,President and CEO, American Association of Colleges of Nurses. [Video and Transcript]
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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. And today I welcome the great nurses of our country to the White House and express our gratitude for those on the frontlines in our war against the global pandemic. And it’s been something, but we’re winning it. We will win. It’s a question of when, and I think it’s going — it’s going to go quickly. We hope it’s going to go quickly. I think we all agree.
…there had to be a point where the value of the Wall St economy surpassed the value of the Main St economy… Part I Here
We now look forward, and consider the question: How would the multinational underwriters, the multinational financial systems, reset all transactional tables (the bookkeeping systems underneath the valuation) if the U.S. stock market was ever forced to re-value economic nationalism over multinational globalism?
To first answer the “how” question, we must visit the “why” question. Why would the multinational financial underwriters want to reset their valuations?
Obviously, the global financial system does not act altruistically. What would motivate the global wealth valuation authority (various market investment indexes) to want, or need, a reset.
The answer to the “why” question might not be as challenging as it appears.
First, there has been a seismic shift in how the world looks at the economic exploitation of multinational systems, or globalism. See Bernie Sanders? See those yellow vests in France? See what happened with the U.K. Brexit referendum? See the shrinking EU influence? See the open/public confrontation and push-back against China? See Trump? All examples are consequences of the rise of economic nationalism.
Secondly, the original Wall Street corporate motive (during decades of mergers and acquisitions) to shift product manufacturing to Southeast Asia (ASEAN nations) was driven by a lower cost of overall business, higher profit margins and greed.
As a direct outcome economic wealth was shifted from the U.S. to ASEAN nations, and particularly China. Low wages, low regulation, cheap operational costs, incentives and subsidies from Asia equals cheap TV’s, sneakers, furniture and durable goods.
Even with high fuel prices and overseas shipping costs, there was a big difference between U.S. and ASEAN manufacturing costs. As hundreds of U.S. Wall Street multinationals chased profits the rust-belt was created.
The stock market is not the U.S. economy; the stock market is an investment instrument that determines valuations of economic activity company by company. The valuation is considerably arbitrary, based on the determinations of the arbiters (investors). This is empirically true.
However, that said, how would the multinational underwriters, the multinational financial systems, reset all transactional tables (the bookkeeping systems underneath the valuation) …if the U.S. stock market was every forced to re-value economic nationalism over multinational globalism? Enter “Coronavirus”.
Four years ago CTH first explained a new way to look at the U.S. economic system and how Main Street was/is disconnected from Wall Street. We presented a metaphor to explain. Before going deeper into the discussion of tomorrow; and at the request of several people who now accept the era of “deglobalization” is upon us, I first present that prior reference & then will use this as the baseline to describe what could come next.
There is a key phrase at the fulcrum of everything past:
…there had to be a point where the value of the second economy (Wall Street) surpassed the value of the first economy (Main Street).
What we are going to outline in part II is the possibility what happens when this natural truism is reversed. The objective is to answer: How, specifically would Wall Street reset its evaluative systems if Main Street once again emerged as the priority?
But first, a baseline revisit is needed.
President Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence lead the daily briefing of the coronavirus task force from the White House briefing room. [Video Below – Transcript ADDED]
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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I would like to begin by announcing some important developments in our war against the Chinese virus.
We’ll be invoking the Defense Production Act, just in case we need it. In other words, I think you all know what it is, and it can do a lot of good things if we need it. And we will — we will have it all completed, signing it in just a little while. Right after I’m finished with this conference, I’ll be signing it. It’s prepared to go. So we will be invoking the Defense Production Act.
Mike Pence: In the fight against the coronavirus, the Trump administration is not just taking a whole of government approach, but a whole of America approach.
We’ve worked seamlessly with state and local leaders from both political parties. Since January, we’ve held 36 briefings with more than 15,000 state, local and tribal leaders from every state and territory in America. And that is in addition to thousands of individual conversations with state, local, and tribal officials.
A vaccine for the coronavirus has already begun a phase 1 clinical trial. The president has dramatically expanded access to telemedicine for seniors on Medicare. And the Health and Human Services Department is collaborating with Johnson & Johnson to develop treatments for coronavirus infections, while actively soliciting proposals for other medical products to help combat the virus.
